Who's your "team"?

How did a nations complicated political and cultural reality get boiled down into a two color palette?

Red and blue have become shorthand for an entire sociopolitical worldview...Red states, to reduce the stereotypes to rather silly level, are a little bit country, blues are a little more rock-and-roll. (source)

Evidently, these designations were not always the case. There never appeared to be a clear consensus on the color of liberalism versus conservatism. According to a Washington Post article, the scheme was often reversed, reflecting traditional European associations (red representing the color of communism and of Great Britain's Labor Party).

Dating back to 1908, the Washington Post arbitrarily assigned color codes on a map of electoral results. Evidently, in later years both parties strove to claim blue as their own (as in “true blue Americans”) and avoid red, with its connotations of radicalism. The color choices are of course, associated with the American flag. And very important in this day in age, also look good on a TV screen.

Before the 2000 election recount charade, "blue states" and "red states" weren't always so clearly-defined. There was quite a bit of flip-flopping going on with color designation.

In 1976, the TV networks agreed to a compromise, in order to avoid playing favorites. Every four years, the color of the incumbent party would flip. So in 1992, the challenger Clinton was red on the maps, and in 1996, incumbent Clinton was also red. Challenger Bush, red in 2000, was red again as an incumbent in 2004. (source)